I've found articles saying to bias the mesh plates low, but that was specifically talking about the TJ's I think...
I found an article saying these VA 98c's can take the full 40 watts because of their titanium plate.
I found another article saying to bias them at "1.2 volts" and Im not really sure what they are talking about, because everything I've learned so far talks about milliamps when biasing.
Then if the person writing that has their amp set up like the tubelab, 1.2 volts would be 120ma, which is WAY high!

so, does anyone have any advice for this? I have them at about 65ma right now, and they are missing a little of the power I had w/ the solid plate tubes. (which were biased at about 80ma)

thanks!

(maybe I should mention b+ is 375v before it goes through the transformer and a resistor, so is probably more like 365v at the tube)

Originally posted by wicked1 I'm not sure if that's what is called fixed bias or not. Doesn't seem fixed to me, because I can change it to whatever I want.

Yeah, the terminology is a bit confusing. Fixed bias, means fixed relative to common. For AC inputs, the grid to cathode change exactly follows the signal. It doesn't depend on tube characteristics, or plate voltage. Yes, you can set up the amp so that it can be easily changed, but once set it remains fixed, even if you change tubes.

Cathode, or auto bias, is set by the current through the tube, and can change with tubes and B+ changes. If the cathode resistor is not bypassed, the grid to cathode voltage is attenuated some (cathode degeneration - a sort of negative feedback).

With 375V B+ and 65mA idle current, the DC dissipation power is 24.4W. The output power is just the same when you set the idle current to 80mA. The DC dissipation power is increased to 30.0W which is still within the max power limit of 36.0W from the sepecification of WE 300B.

By changing the bias current, the sound character will change because of the differences in transfer characteristic. Therefore, it is a bit of fun to try out what's the idle current will give you the sound you most like.

Actually my data sheets for the WE 300A/B indicate that the max plate dissipation is 40W..

Also I have found that the maximum power for a given distortion % increases significantly with increasing bias current. In my amplifier 60mA idle current at 400V is good for about 7Wrms at 5%, increase this to 80mA and for the same distortion % produces about 9Wrms. Note that this is somewhat dependent on the actual tube, and the actual numbers may vary somewhat from sample to sample. Note that in a sense I am splitting hairs as the minimum usable difference is 3dB and this is nowhere close.

The 5% number actually comes directly from WE and seems to be about the % thd where the distortion apparently (?) becomes audibly objectionable in 0 fdbk SE amplifiers. Certainly sounds objectionable when I run my amp that hard..

Interestingly there was a commercial Japanese design that ran a single 300B right to the limit and claimed 17Wrms output. IIRC there is a schematic for this in Jean Hiraga's "Tube Amplifiers" book. I bet tube life was less than impressive.

I have been thinking of trying the TJ mesh plate 300B in my amplifier at some point, replacement JJ are getting expensive enough that I am inclined to try something else at some point. I liked the WE 300B that I tried in this amplifier, but the small improvement in performance over the JJ did not justify the really steep cost difference and I did not buy them. Operating conditions in this amplifier are 400V, with fixed bias over a range of 50mA - 100mA possible. Comments?